Good Thursday, everyone. Our run of extreme cold is finally coming to an end, with a bit of a January thaw on the way for the next week or two. This will likely be a period that averages above normal, but we will watch several big storm systems rolling across the country.

Temps this morning are in the single digits, with afternoon highs generally in the mid and upper 20s. Skies should be mostly sunny, so good luck with the snow glare. 🙂

Highs on Friday are back into the 30s, with more in the way of sunshine. Clouds will increase on Saturday as temps make a run toward the 40s. With the increase in clouds, a few showers try to pop up during the afternoon and evening. Milder southwesterly winds really kick in on Sunday with temps heading toward the 50s.

The models are trending a little colder with our weekend temps. Here’s the GFS…

This is ahead of a cold front moving in here Sunday night into Monday. That brings a wall of rain across the state…

Temps will tumble behind this front, but the numbers aren’t anything to worry about. It’s just a seasonal shot of temps coming in behind this into the middle of the week.

With a pattern skewing a little milder, it’s also wetter looking. The next two weeks worth of precipitation on the GFS Ensembles show the flow coming from the Gulf…

The majority of that is likely to be rain, but we will have to track each individual storm system to see exactly how they play out.

If you ever seen the Christmas movie: titled ” A Christmas Story ” when the older boy wakes up on Christmas morning and admires the hoarfrost on the trees, I thought this was a nice touch to the movie.